Folktales and Reality [Hardcover]

Peter Tokofsky has provided English readers with a superb translation of one of the most important books on folktales. Wolfgang Mieder

This classic work, first published in 1956, is now available in English. Along with L?thi's The European Folktale and Propp's The Morphology of the Folktale, R?hrich's M?rchen und Wirklichkeit is considered a key text in folklore scholarship.

Foreword by Dan Ben-Amos
Abbreviations
Translators Preface
Preface to the Third Edition

I. Introduction

II. The Genres of Folk Narrative and Their Relationship to Reality
Folktale and Legend
The Aetiological Narrative
Saints Legend and Folksong
Folktales without the Happy Ending
Jest

III. The Folktale and the Reality of the Magical World-View Magic
Man and AnimalTransformation and Disenchantment
Manners and Customs
Cruelty in the Folktale

IV. The Modern Folktale as Believed Reality
Tribal Narratives
European Narratives

V. Paths of Rationalization
Ethnic Differences
Magical Thought and Modern Civilization

VI. The Folktale as a Mirror of the Real World
The Significance of Time and Place
The Social Milieu

VII. The Folktales Inner Reality
The Narrators Ego
The Folktales Themes

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Tale Indexes
Subject Index